Virginia Gay Named Adelaide Cabaret Festival 2024 Artistic Director
Image: Virginia Gay. Image: Naomi Jellicoe/ Supplied
Award-winning Australian stage and screen star Virginia Gay has been announced as the Artistic Director for Adelaide Cabaret Festival 2024.
Gay said that some of her most extraordinary performance experiences were at previous Adelaide Cabaret Festivals.
“I love Adelaide audiences – their openness and willingness to see new work, their warm embracing presence and their response to this beloved festival means there’s an electricity in the foyers, backstage and amongst the performers,” Gay said in a statement.
Gay is known for her roles in TV shows like All Saints and Winners and Losers and her performances in stage productions such as Calamity Jane and Cyrano.
In her 2021 adaptation of Cyrano, the protagonist was gender-flipped into a gay woman in a queer retelling that she told The Age was, “the story of the queer body and that the queer body doesn’t deserve love.”
“I cannot, as a queer performer, give my energy to a story that says queer love is impossible. I won’t be a part of a story that says, ‘kill your gays’,” Gay told The Guardian.
Love Of Cabaret
The announcement from Adelaide Festival Centre came after Gay received rave reviews as host of the festival’s opening night on June 9.
Speaking with ABC Radio Adelaide, Gay said her love of cabaret stems from the lack of control that actors can have on stage. “The joy of live performance is everything to me because it is chaos,” she said.
“I feed off the energy of an audience and they feed off my energy, and together we make something greater than the sum of our parts.”
The 2023 Adelaide Cabaret Festival has already had almost 20 sold-out performances and countless standing ovations, with more shows before the festival concludes on June 24.
‘Gay Will Continue To Lead The Way’
Adelaide Festival Centre CEO Douglas Gautier AM thanked audiences for making the first two weeks of this year’s festival so spectacular.
“This year has been one of our most successful Adelaide Cabaret Festivals to date with the incredible Cabaret Collective of nine Artistic Directors at the helm,” he said.
“We know Virginia Gay will continue to lead the way as Artistic Director of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival next year with her many years of performance experience, and we look forward to her fresh ideas for the 2024 festival.”
Adelaide Cabaret Festival has grown from modest beginnings in 2001 to become a platform for shows and performers who have achieved critical acclaim, featuring world-renowned artists including Lisa Fischer, Kristin Chenoweth, Tim Minchin, and more.
Adelaide Cabaret Festival 2024 will be held from June 7 – 22.
